Turkish Daily News
Oct 7 2006

Ankara warns Paris not to risk its friendship
Saturday, October 7, 2006

Turkey’s people will perceive the adoption of controversial
‘genocide’ bill as a hostile attitude on the part of France, the
Foreign Ministry says, as the prime minister will today discuss the
problem with French businessmen in Istanbul

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

Turkey has reminded France of the importance it attributes to
bilateral political and economic ties between the two countries as
well as of the sensitivity of Turkey’s people regarding a highly
contentious bill that penalizes any denial of an Armenian "genocide"
at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

"The Armenian issue has poisoned bilateral ties in the past, but
the bill will inflict irreparable damage to our relationship,"
Foreign Ministry spokesman Namýk Tan said on Friday, referring to the
vote at the French National Assembly scheduled for Oct. 12 at the
request of the main opposition Socialist Party, the bill’s architect.

The spokesman clearly warned that the move could jeopardize
"investment, the fruit of years of work, and France will — so to
speak — lose Turkey."

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer sent a letter this week to his French
counterpart, Jacques Chirac, on the issue and Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoðan will discuss the problem on Saturday with French
businessmen in Istanbul, Tan said.

Though the conservative majority in the French Assembly opposes the
bill, Turkey fears many opponents will not vote against it for fear
of upsetting France’s 400,000-strong Armenian diaspora ahead of
elections next year.

"The Armenian lobby should abandon backstage games and come up with
concrete arguments supported by historical facts," diplomatic sources
earlier said, referring to Ankara’s proposal last year to establish a
joint committee of Turkish and Armenian experts to study allegations
of an Armenian genocide in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

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